Computers have become highly integrated in the workforce, in the home, in mobile devices, and many other places. Computers can process massive amounts of information quickly and efficiently. Software applications designed to run on computer systems allow users to perform a wide variety of functions including business applications, schoolwork, entertainment and more. Software applications are often designed to perform specific tasks, such as word processor applications for drafting documents, or email programs for sending, receiving and organizing email.
In some cases, software applications may be designed to process media. For instance, media player applications may access and play music and movies from a variety of different sources, including local data sources (e.g. hard drive or DVD) as well as streaming media. Streaming media may be provided by media servers such as those hosted on the cloud. Each media server may provide different types of media, in a variety of different formats. Some of the media formats may be proprietary, while others may use an open-source or otherwise publicly available encoding system.